No spoilers. Haven’t done a theater review in over 20 years, so here we go. Theatrical Opening of The Long Walk here, a movie that I’ve kinda been wondering about if they’d ever realize it on the big screen for decades now. Stephen King wrote this early, one of his first books, in fact. But they didn’t publish it until he got famous, and then under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, with 3 other stories including The Running Man, another futuristic dystopian novel. Hmmm. Apparently late 60s was a haven for...good thoughts!
So for the movie itself. I re-read the book not too long ago after a long while, so that’s pretty fresh. I’ll keep this part to the unbeknownst, those unfamiliar with the story. They lay it out pretty quick. 50 Contestants. Winner-Take-All kinda situation, and Good luck! The implications of that? 49 losers get their “ticket.” The worst kindsa ticket. But in a Depression-Era kinda Futuristic Dystopia, those are still pretty good odds to win...the ultimate prize, all while helping the Economy! What is the Ultimate Prize? Whatever you fkn want. That’s a good prize! You just have to...walk for it.
For those that are familiar with the book, it...does okay with it, I’d say 70-ish% for accuracy but considering compressed for time. There’s obviously a few liberties taken with the original story, but honestly nothing too different besides the Fandom/TV coverage part of it that truly affects the characters themselves (which obviously is a significant part of the original story itself). Spirit of the story is still mostly there. It’s those couple extra liberties taken that are a bit unfortunate. There’s some race swapping that is mostly okay, but some of that narrative is a bit...modernized. Obviously most of the film here is dialogue. Some of that dialogue is, yeah, a little suspect. But some that isn’t. So I guess it comes down to what you want to listen to. The end result is still the same though. And for the “tickets” issued after your 3 warnings? Yeah, it’s brutal here. No punches pulled. Ending is...a bit different than the book. Will be interesting to see how audiences overall react to it. What the interpretations are. I mean, it is kinda crazy, amiright?
